Obama Faults BP, Transocean, Halliburton Blame Game

President Obama was fed up with executives from BP, Transocean and Halliburton trying to blame each other for the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, "I did not appreciate what I considered to be a ridiculous spectacle during the congressional hearings into this matter. You had executives of BP and Transocean and Halliburton falling over each other to point the finger of blame at somebody else. The American people could not have been impressed with that display, and I certainly wasn't."

He added, "I understand that there are legal and financial issues involved, and a full investigation will tell us exactly what happened. But it is pretty clear that the system failed, and it failed badly. And for that, there's enough responsibility to go around. And all parties should be willing to accept it." Obama noted that in the past, "There's been a cozy relationship between the oil companies and the federal agency that permits them to drill"—hello, MMS and those stories about snorting meth off toaster ovens—"It seems as if permits were too often issued based on little more than assurances of safety from the oil companies. That cannot and will not happen anymore."

The latest depressing news is that the leak may be spewing more oil than expected: NPR says 70,000 barrels, or just under 3 million gallons, a day is being released. The Wall Street Journal has a graphic showing the four ways BP will attempt to stop the leak—the relief wells, the top hat, the threading the needle and the junk shot. For more on the top hat and junk shot, here's the Daily Show: